Kevin Pietersen's 12th Test hundred yesterday was his slowest for England, but the opening day of the third Test was not a day for excess. Instead, England's most flamboyant batsman revelled in his ability to play it tough as he completed his own version of the Dirty Dozen.

England were 86 for five against New Zealand soon after lunch, with three batsmen picked off in as many overs, including Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood for ducks, but Pietersen's resilient hundred, assembled over 194 balls, salvaged matters as they reached 273 for seven by the close.

"It was a scenario where we were staring down the barrel," he said. "I like to stand up and be counted on days when it's really tough. I like to score runs when it counts. Runs for me feel a lot better when we are in trouble. It shows character and is something that I thrive on."

The ball swung at Trent Bridge, although not as excessively as some had forecast. Pietersen nevertheless judged that England, 1-0 up entering the last of a three-Test series, were "well ahead". He said: "The ball did enough all day. The only thing that helped us was that the wicket was slow. If the wicket hadn't been slow we would have been in a whole lot of trouble because it nipped around all day."

Pietersen shared a sixth-wicket stand of 161 in 51 overs with Tim Ambrose, whose half-century was a spirited response to the mountain of runs being made for Sussex by his wicketkeeping rival Matt Prior. Iain O'Brien dismissed both late in the day to finish with four for 61.

"Tim is a cool guy to bat with because he is pretty chilled like me," Pietersen said. "We have a laugh and try and stay as relaxed as we can. Nothing really fazes me, to be honest. The combination of the tall and the short guy really works. My lunge pretty much gets to the length balls, while Tim likes to cut them."

Pietersen's form, three hundreds apart, has been sketchy in the past year of Test cricket and he has done more technical agonising than many might suppose; the problem is his wandering hands.

"Duncan Fletcher used to say that your technique has to look after you and my technique wasn't looking after me in New Zealand. My hands were outside my eyes and I lost my shots through midwicket. Now my hands are looking after me.

"My hands were messing everything up. At Lord's I was thinking about my hands rather than worrying about my batting. My hands and my eyes are the key to me being successful. Now my hands are feeling great. My hands are so good at the moment. I'm so happy."